Football club identity leadership and supporters’ feelings of safety at matches

Football clubs can promote positive fan-club relationships through strategies aligned with dimensions of identity leadership. However, it is unclear how club identity leadership contributes to attendees’ feelings of safety at matches. Across two studies, we explored whether perceptions of football club identity leadership relate to spectators’ feelings of safety at matches, and whether this is mediated through trust in and expected support from the club to maintain safety at events. Study 1 presents a cross-sectional survey (N = 238) exploring supporters' ratings of their club's identity leadership, trust in their club, expected support from their club, and feelings of safety when attending matches. Study 2 presents an online experiment (N = 330) manipulating identity leadership (positive vs negative) through news article vignettes about a fictional football club. Overall, we found a significant positive direct effect of identity leadership on feelings of safety, alongside a significant indirect effect via trust and expected support.